The Wrecking Crew…20/08/2013

The Wrecking Crew…20/08/2013 Strangely enough I’ve never been wrecking. Sure I’ve fished wrecks, mostly the White Swan and the Norman nearby but those are both shallow water wrecks fished by casting or trolling lures, wedges and tobies or with baits but this plan was different. This plan was summer jigging of pirks and speed jigs for cod in deeper clear water off the north Norfolk coast with friends who’d had good catches a few days prior. With a family day planned visiting friends staying on the river nearby at Potter Heigham I figured I could pull a fast one with the promise of providing lunch… I met up with the guys at Walcott; Charley was there when I arrived with Dav and Ian pitched up soon after. It’d be quicker to get where we were going from here which could be useful and would also give a bit more sleep after last night’s chubbing and before the hour-long drive. There are loads of wrecks out here and ours was quite a trek out and along; I ain’t saying which (I was a guest on someone elses find) but what we did and learned would probably apply to all of them. And we all learned a lot. Charley was first on the water and waited while we got sorted out and followed him down the wooden ramp into the water; tide was high and we had no beach. Dave’s launch was the most picturesque: I just can’t help myself. A whole three hundred yards passed before I had to drop some feathers down to try for mackerel. I had a heavy pirk on the bottom of the stiffer rod – the Paxton Trolling Uptider – with some Seasilvers and a 28g wedge on the 10-30g Xtraflexx spinning rod below some Hokki Pink tails. It took around five minutes before the heavier rod started to shake and I hauled in a fine mackerel, about fifteen feet long judging by the photograph. Good stuff. A couple more mackerel came on the troll and drift and after an hour or so we made it down to our war relic and scouted around to find it. I had the numbers from Dave and crossed over a large lump just south of it; I marked it and tried for my first drift, tangling my two lines on the turn and drifting a few hundred yards downtide while I cut and retied things; back up to start again, passing Charley who had the first codling aboard. I started to jig uptide of him: First drift I missed it, paddled up for the second, saw loads of marks on the finder and said aloud ‘there’s fish here’ and was straight in; codling, the target! The bottom seasilver had done the trick. It wasn’t the largest in the world and went back; the promise of big wreck fish made it unnecessary to take. Maybe. I was slap bang on the wreck on my next drift but didn’t wind quick enough and my luminous pirk and bottom two seasilvers were gone. I retied some multi coloured feathers and my other pirk, dulled from sitting in saltwater for a while in the past and, with my battery now dead and only allowing brief bursts on the finder I was well prepared for failure. I paddled back up and had mackerel on the way – three on the spinning rod and one on the Uptider. Seven now, dinner is served! Charley’s GPS was now also down and Ian didn’t have his; my handheld was in the car still. We would have marked the wreck with Charley’s anchor but we had no buoy…so fishing as sporadic. Ian was getting knocks with no fish then the tail went from his shad; he switched to metal and had his first small codling. As I drifted past my rod shook and I pulled up the first of four pouting. I scooted around a bit, trying o find the mark – it’s only small – and the next time I managed it I ended up beaming again; my tub gurnard last week was splendid, now I had it’s grey gurnard brother! Twenty five years hoping for a gurnard and I get two types in a week! Marvellous – species 26 for the competition. Same Hokki Pink Tail rig as the last. Photos and back to swim away; besides the mackerel I’d kept nothing yet. More pout. This pirk was missing fish in my hands, I scrounged a speed jig from Dave and had a couple of pout before snapping it while trying to put a bend in it. Second drift afterwards I hooked into a fish which dived and I became snagged in the wreck. It wasn’t budging so I cut off and tied myself onto the line. As I dealt with the next trace my spinning rod started to go and up on the wedge came the second cod. Charley headed in and soon after we followed, I drifted back further rout in the hope of more mackerel but only managed a joey before landing a few minutes behind the other two. I’d had an absolutely first class session and was over the moon with it. Proper wrecking, both target species and another point. Great company, great conditions and a great day. ----- So what did we learn. Quite a few things. For myself, firstly, make sure my GPS/Sonar batteries are going to last the course! Second, take something to mark the wreck. Third, experiment with different jigs and pirks and rigs and the way you fish them. Now for some reading to learn some more…